Heather Fell, Olympic silver medallist, writes about her life in the media and sports world.

PERSISTENCE is key. That was the motto I trained by and continued to demonstrate throughout my sporting career; in a multidiscipline sport such as modern pentathlon it proved vital.

I have just witnessed two friends perfectly demonstrate the importance of this trait with incredible results on the world stage. I met both girls at Kelly College, where we were all part of the successful swim squad. It was there that the work ethic became engrained, we soon learned that results would not come easily, but that we encouraged to always aim high and never give up. Our success was not purely down to the physical benefits of a swimming background, more significantly it was the mental strength gained from this period of our athlete development.

Claire Cashmore had already competed in a Paralympic Games, winning medals in Athens, Beijing and London, an impressive collection of silver and bronze. Rio 2016 was her fourth Games and possibly the last chance to go for gold. It came down to her fourth and final event in the medley relay. Claire did it, she reached her goal and she stood on top of the podium at the Paralympic Games with a gold medal around her neck, singing God Save The Queen.

Another athlete that I shared many tough training sessions alongside in the pool went on to represent Bermuda in triathlon. Flora Duffy competed in her third Olympic Games this summer and went in ranked number one in the world. It was not quite to be as she missed out on the podium for a third time. However, a month later at the World Championships in Mexico, Flora did not dwell on her Rio performance, she moved on and refocused. She is now the Triathlon World Champion.

Both of these friends have shown such resilience and persistence throughout their long successful careers. It is athletes such as Claire and Flora that can remind us to dream.